Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan to finish talks on oil cooperation this year

Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are planning to complete negotiating the draft of a government agreement on creating the transportation corridor Aktau-Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan by the end of 2003, the Azerbaijani State Oil Company reported. The agreement will make the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline the priority route for transporting Kazakhstani oil through Azerbaijan to the Mediterranean market.

The talks on Kazakhstan's participation in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan project were held in Baku (Azerbaijan) on September 2, 2003. Among participants were authorities and experts of the Azerbaijani State Oil Company and Kazakhstan's KazMunaiGaz. The parties decided to form a joint task force that would work out an agreement on the basis of proposals of both parties and submit it for signing by the governments of the two countries.

Main provisions of the Azerbaijani and Kazakhstani variants of this document are identical. The parties are to discuss questions of creating favorable legislation for Kazakhstan's joining the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan project.